Smoked Topaz 3 Series Wagon

[equ]

I'm less enthused with f30 suspension/steering (even with the THP) but it is what we have these days. Comfortable, but a bit on the remote/soft side.

[SARAFIL]

That’s exactly the kind of car you lease because otherwise you’d lose your shirt on resale value with all of those options! Also, BMW had really strong lease programs on wagons in the last year or two so it was probably reasonably cheap. Quite pricey right now though!

[wdc330i]

Originally Posted by SARAFIL

That’s exactly the kind of car you lease because otherwise you’d lose your shirt on resale value with all of those options! Also, BMW had really strong lease programs on wagons in the last year or two so it was probably reasonably cheap. Quite pricey right now though!

Yes, it certainly is. Interesting about the incentives.

So, my research is strongly suggesting it was an executive lease for one of the BMW folks at the Lower Nazareth RDC...Bet they got an even sweeter lease deal, and that may also account for the shorter than usual lease term...

[robg]

Originally Posted by wdc330i

Yes, it certainly is. Interesting about the incentives.

So, my research is strongly suggesting it was an executive lease for one of the BMW folks at the Lower Nazareth RDC...Bet they got an even sweeter lease deal, and that may also account for the shorter than usual lease term...

Makes sense. Possibly a dealership employee?

[robg]

Originally Posted by SARAFIL

That’s exactly the kind of car you lease because otherwise you’d lose your shirt on resale value with all of those options! Also, BMW had really strong lease programs on wagons in the last year or two so it was probably reasonably cheap. Quite pricey right now though!

Good point. I woudln't surprised if this is the highest MSRP 4 cylinder 3 series they ever sold in the US.

[JST]

Originally Posted by robg

Good point. I woudln't surprised if this is the highest MSRP 4 cylinder 3 series they ever sold in the US.

Terry should buy it!

[robg]

Originally Posted by JST

Terry should buy it!

Yeah- it's definitely a worthy successor to his e46.

[wdc330i]

Originally Posted by robg

Yeah- it's definitely a worthy successor to his e46.

Absolutely! His new spine will thank him for it.

[Terri Kennedy]

Originally Posted by robg

Yeah- it's definitely a worthy successor to his e46.

[Answering various posts]

Mine may or may not have been the most expensive E46 wagon, but was told by BMWNA that it was the highest-optioned one they ever sold in the US, and that was before I added all of the unobtainium options (the Individual wood, power folding mirrors, lumbar support, TV that only gets analog channels, yadda-yadda). In fact, when I was talking to Tom Purves once, he said "Oh, you're the person with that one"

I still have that car and don't have any plans to get rid of it, just keep feeding it front CV joints as a regular diet. I also don't like the newer wagon designs where the roof drops down toward the rear. The whole point of a wagon is to have lots of room in the back, particularly right at the hatch.

The older BMWs were a lot more user-modifiable - you could take control of the management bus and do things. That's the way the Phatbox works (although it pretends to be a CD changer), but I've also added the Stealth One (integrates the V1 with the nav display) and a gizmo of my own design that reads the rain sensor and if the car was left parked with any window or sunroof open and it starts to rain, it will chirp the alarm once (to let anyone with their arm on the window know things are about to happen), then raise the windows(s) and chirp and cycle that window continuously (well, 10 tries, don't want to burn out the window regulator) if the window pinch sensor detects an obstruction while raising the window. Let's see, what else? The side view mirrors will power fold in if the valet key was in the ignition and the car was turned off. There's a USB port in the trunk which will register on the PC as a compound device called "Terry's BMW" and I have a Windows app (probably need to rebuild it for Windows 7/10 - I haven't used it in a while) that lets me do pretty much all dealer coding functions.

The only thing I miss is BMW's / aftermarket's failure to produce updated navigation DVDs. Since the CarinDB format has been cracked, I could probably take any current Teleatlas map and convert it, but it hasn't been annoying enough (yet) to deal with it.

[equ]

Not sure if the expanded "many-corn" trend will continue, but with BaT and all resale might not be too bad on this down the road... All depends if BMW reintroduces wagons to the line up.